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2019
Edition

The Green Challenge – city dwellers in a species-appropriate husbandry

Green Challenge - Städter in artgerechter Haltung
Germany
Web / New Media

A short-film web series in 11 episodes, each lasting 7 to 10 minutes, about our life’s questions in a rapidly changing world full of new challenges.
Heike and Martin are tired of city life. Too high rents, too much work, less and less free time. A sustainable life seems impossible. In a nutshell, they decide to turn their lives around and move into a farm community in the countryside to become self-sufficient. Now everything is getting better … right?

They meet Lutz, head of the farm community, who takes care of the housekeeping with the utmost precision and Falk, a real guy who is responsible for the goats and dreams of keeping ducks. Ulla and Kjell are an uncompromising vegan couple. Ulla calls for radical change in all areas of life, while Kjell, surfer, is content with himself and the world. And there is the sensitive Fabian, who knows how to banish bad vibes with rosewater. Melanie, a pubescent intern, who has to get through her social services on the farm, surfs the Internet rather than living in a world of self-catering. In weekly group meetings, Heike and Martin and the other members of the community deal with sustainability issues as well as issues within the community.

In eleven episodes, the short film web series tells of a containering action that threatens to fail, or of the need to acquire ducks for slug removal. Then a Zalando package without sender’s address bursts into the consumer-critical group. The increasingly tense mood between Heike and Martin, but also the visit of Heike’s conservative parents, the accidental appearance of Heike’s ex-boyfriend Rico heat up the mood. The dubious use of pesticides in the cultivation of Kohlrabi brings Heike and Martin to the edge of their patience for each other. Participating in a bonding seminar with root chakra opening as well as a healing treatment by the shaman Rainer Lebauf do not really help out there.

When Heike comes back disappointed from a long-awaited girls’ evening in the city, existential questions break up: City or country? Who owns the city? How do we want to live?

Heike, a journalist from Hamburg, is stressed by the city life, dreaming of a self-determined existence in the countryside. However, the reality of the farm community raises more and more doubts. Martin, graphic designer from Hamburg, is under enormous pressure at work. He willingly embarks on life in the rural commune getting involved more and more into the experiment.

—— Curious – feel free to screen more:
Here you find all eleven episodes (in German language):
https://vimeo.com/album/5472171
password
p26CL4DQ

00:00:00
Alexander Resch
Annette Krossa, Helge van Hofe, Valentino Karl, Kim Berger
German

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